Republicans in Minnesota Attempt to Remove Gun Precautions That Work. In Their Haste to Appease Gun Fetishists

This op-ed article in the STrib makes an especially compelling argument for retaining effective state-level gun checks, while highlighting the failures of the federal NCIS gun check data base that we pointed out here.  Republicans claims that the two different background checks are redundant, and that the state check is unnecessary seem to be willfully oblivious to the fact that we aren't keeping up our participation in the federal data base.  I think the argument can be made that the Republicans and other conservatives on the right are making their gun decisions on an emotional basis, not on a factual one.

We have provided precisely ZERO names of dangerously mentally ill people to the NCIS data base, and neither have some of the surrounding states to Minnesota.  North Dakota supplied ZERO names to the data base under the category of mental illness;  South Dakota supplied only ONE.  Nebraska has provided precisely ONE.  Iowa provided TWENTY FOUR.  While Wisconsin has provided FIVE HUNDRED EIGHTEEN  names of dangerously mentally ill people who are not allowed to own guns to the federal data base.

For all the regional rivalry jokes in our part of the country, we have a lot in common with the adjoining states.  It is not plausible, it is not credible for a heartbeat that somehow Wisconsin has more dangerously crazy people than Minnesota or the Dakotas or Iowa.  Rather, looking at the stats for the other states, it is clear that what we have is a failure to comply with providing the necessary names to the federal data base, and that if we rely on the Republicans trusting to abandon the Minnesota background check, WE WILL BE LESS SAFE.   What we need is to be fact based, reality based, for a change, not fetish-driven in our regulations of guns. I realize that this is completely contrary to how Republicans operate, but that doesn't change the dangers of what they propose to do. 

What we NEED is to have Minnesota properly supply the federal data base with the names of people who ought not to be buying guns according to enforcing the existing laws.  NOT new laws, not unreasonable laws, but according to existing laws.

According to the information provided by the STrib OpEd:

Last year, the Bloomington Police Department received 541 requests for permission to buy handguns.

Of that total, 37 were denied following local background checks required by Minnesota law. According to officials, those rejections were due to chemical dependency or mental illness issues.

Had Bloomington authorities relied solely on instant federal background checks, every one of those 37 permit-seekers would have been cleared on the spot to buy a gun.

That gives officers time to consult several local agencies for histories of drug abuse, domestic violence, mental illness or stalking.


At the point of purchase, gun sellers use the federal background system, which can take as little as a few minutes.
Trouble is, the national system doesn't have the same information that local officers can access within Minnesota or other states.

Different states report the data differently, and some state entities such as counties, courts, or health and human services departments don't share information with the feds. Until the national computer system includes all the data that police need, Minnesota's law should stay in place.

Both the Minnesota police officer and police chief associations strongly oppose overturning the law.

They say the federal system is often incomplete and that the state law is a "due diligence'' safeguard that allows local police to investigate permit applications as thoroughly as possible.

Our Republican legislators in Minnesota clearly are unaware of the very large deficiencies in our compliance with the federal data base, and they just as clearly don't want to fund them to keep current.  Apparently they find gun deaths - AVOIDABLE gun deaths - by guns falling into the hands of criminals, drug addicts, stalkers, and the dangerously mentally ill far less important than getting guns into the hands of all buyers, legal and illegal, more quickly.  This tells us that the lessons of the failures to use existing laws to prevent tragedies like the Tucson shootings was not learned by Minnesota conservatives.  In Arizona, the laws that were in place to address dangerous mental illness were not used, AND they did not update names to the federal data base either, although they did a better job of it than Minnesota has done.  Arizona is one of the 38 states that relies solely on federal gun checks to prevent individuals from buying guns who are illegal to do so -- and look how that worked out.  That is the legislators idea of safety??????????

Let us re-educate those right wing gun nuts (as distinct from non-fetish gun owners); they clearly need the remediation.  Lets support the Minnesota police associations, they are on the front lines of dealing with gun violence.  The right likes to talk about 'common sense' solutions,  but this is a clear case of not embracing fundamental common sense; of talking a good talk, but falling down,badly, on walking the common sense walk.